[CLIFFORD (Mrs. Lucy.] [SYLVESTER (James Joseph).]

A collection of three printed poems and two autograph letters addressed and presented to the novelist Mrs. Lucy Clifford. 1. [Drop-head title] Sonnet. On a Lady coming up and addressing the writer by name, when sitting alone, in a state of mental abstraction.

[Oxford?] N.D. [1885?] pp. 4. Printed in brown within a decorative border. Inscribed to Mrs. Clifford. With one autograph amendment to the last poem. 2. Corolla Versum. First edition, one of 50 numbered copies for private distribution. 4to. pp. 4. Tunbridge Wells, November 15, 1895. Presented by the author to Mrs. W.K. Clifford as a "souvenir of friendship and regard." Short Latin poems with facing English translation and accompanying notes. Tipped onto the rear leaf is an errata slip with a manuscript correction. 3. Corolla Versum. Second and partially revised edition of 50 copies for private circulation. 4to. pp. 4. Tunbridge Wells, November 26, 1895. With a printed note by the author withdrawing the previous edition (of which "only about thirty have been issued") and substituting this one. Presented by the author to Mrs. Clifford "with the author's kind regards." 4. Two ALS dated 7th and 10th January 1888, the first one page accompanying "a jeu d'ésprit in verse" (the first printed item); the second, three pages , thanking Mrs. Clifford for her favourable opinion and noting some corrections to the printed text, then writing that he engaged to meet "Brett Hart" (sic) the next day. A noted mathematician, Sylvester had been well-known to Lucy Clifford's husband, William Clifford, also a brilliant mathematician, who died young in 1879. Apart from his mathematical studies, Sylvester had a deep love of English literature which was sometimes expressed in an eccentric way (see his "Laws of Verse" - an attempt to illustrate the principles of "phonetic syzgy"). His own verse, according to the DNB, "showed great ingenuity and invention in language, but lacked simplicity and clearness." In nice condition. None of the printed pieces located in COPAC.

• GBP 350.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 8472

• bookseller: John Hart (GREAT BRITAIN)